Gun Control

Complete dataset with all info for gun control

To quantify how strict are gun controls in different states, we are using:

• The NICS background checks are used by Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) to instantly determine whether a prospective buyer is eligible to buy firearms or explosives. This data is used to approximate how many people tried to apply for license in each state;
• The number of federal firearms licensees in the U.S. is used to approximate how many people actually got approved for gun licenses in each state;
• The approval rate uses the proportion of licensees in the total population of the state to indicate the difficulties in getting apprroved for gun license;
• The application rate uses the proportion of background checks in the total population of the state to indicate people’s willingness in applying for guns;
• Crude rate is the mortality rate due to gun violence;
• A numerical variable for law strength to indicate legislation strength in differnet states. The higher of law_strength value is, the less strict gun laws in the corresponding state.
• For consistency purposes, District of Columbia is not included; for gun control panel, we focus on year 2017.

Numerical variables

variable	type	complete	mean	missing	n	p0	p100	p25	p50	p75	sd
application_rate	numeric	50	0.1	0	50	0.0	1.0	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
approval_rate	numeric	50	0.0	0	50	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
crude_rate	numeric	50	13.2	0	50	3.6	23.9	10.3	12.5	17.3	4.9
death_rate	numeric	50	13.0	0	50	3.4	23.0	9.7	12.8	17.4	4.9
death_rate_rank	integer	50	25.5	0	50	1.0	50.0	13.2	25.5	37.8	14.6
deaths	numeric	50	771.0	0	50	49.0	3353.0	206.0	564.0	1048.2	745.9
law_strength	integer	50	25.4	0	50	1.0	50.0	13.2	25.5	37.0	14.5
number_of_background_checks	numeric	50	498647.7	0	50	12742.0	4641480.0	129223.0	299839.0	534990.5	720686.3
number_of_federal_firearms_licensees	numeric	50	2718.7	0	50	246.0	10920.0	1228.0	2247.5	3566.0	2111.0
number_of_residents_in_millions	numeric	50	6.5	0	50	0.6	39.5	1.8	4.6	7.3	7.3
population	numeric	50	6448926.9	0	50	585501.0	39250017.0	1850105.5	4559320.0	7198767.8	7271769.1
state_code	numeric	50	29.3	0	50	1.0	56.0	17.2	29.5	41.8	15.8
year	numeric	50	2016.0	0	50	2016.0	2016.0	2016.0	2016.0	2016.0	0.0

Categorical variables

variable	type	complete	empty	max	min	missing	n	n_unique	ordered
death_cause	character	50	0	7	7	0	50	1	NA
grade_2017	factor	50	NA	NA	NA	0	50	5	0
state	character	50	0	14	4	0	50	50	NA
state_abb.x	character	50	0	2	2	0	50	50	NA
state_abb.y	character	50	0	2	2	0	50	50	NA

As we can see, the dataset has no missing data. All the information, including population statistics, background check / applications statistics, approved licensees statistics, are generalized for different states (except for D.C.).

Approved license vs. law strength

The first plot show the relationship between the percentage of people get approved for gun licenses, mortality rate and the law strength in each state.

As we can see in this plot, in different states, the percentage of people get approved for gun licenses is positively connected with law strength. This is intuitive because it’s easier to get approved for guns in states with less strict gun laws. Also, with less strict gun laws, states generally have higher mortality rate. An regression model is built to further explain this relationship in model panel.

Application for guns vs. law strength

The second plot shows the relationship application percentage (proportion of people applying for the license in total population), mortality rate and the law strength.

As we can see in the plot,

• In most states, the percentage of people tried to apply for gun licenses is relatively same across the country, no matter how strict the law is. This shows that people in different state share equal passion to apply for guns.
  
• The only exception is Kentucky. According to Wikipedia, people don’t need to license or permit to own guns for private uses. This explains exceptional passion to apply for guns in Kentucky, leading to an exceptional high proportion of application for background checks. The reason that the total proportion is greater than one might be companies applying for background checks for public gun sales.